Mrs. Jumbo is a major character in the 1941 Disney animated film, Dumbo. She is the loving, protective mother of the film's titular character.
Appearances
Dumbo
Mrs. Jumbo is first seen one night awaiting Mr. Stork. However, she is saddened when many other animals receive their new children, but not hers. In the morning, she enters the circus train but stops on the footbridge to look out for the stork. However, an impatient Matriarch forces her to move on to the train by nudging her backside and finally ends Mrs. Jumbo's lookout by insensibly pushing her up the ramp and into the car. During the train ride, she is visited by Mr. Stork, who had apparently become lost. She names her new baby Jumbo Jr. The stork leaves after singing "Happy Birthday" to the baby and the other elephants compliment the baby elephant. However, when the baby sneezes and reveals oversized ears after being tickled by the Matriarch on the trunk, they immediately begin teasing him. Mrs. Jumbo responds by slapping one of the elephants, who was touching and mocking her son's ears at the time, prompting them to give him the cruel nickname of "Dumbo." Furious, Mrs. Jumbo closes the stall door in their faces, allowing her and Dumbo to rest peacefully.
When the circus stops, Mrs. Jumbo assists in the setup of the tent with the kind help of her son as well. The next morning, she and Dumbo walk in the circus parade. Dumbo trips over his ears and falls into the mud, and so Mrs. Jumbo bathes him when they return to the circus. Soon after having spent a moment of playing a game of tail-pulling, a group of boys enters the tent and they begin teasing Dumbo. When one of the boys enters the pen (which is off limits), pulls Dumbo's ears, and blows in them, Mrs. Jumbo reacts by spanking him. The Ringmaster arrives and tries to calm her down with his whip but to no avail. She is assumed to have gone mad and is held down with ropes by the circus employees as well as having chains locked around her legs while others try to stop her with harpoons. When one of the circus employees takes her son away from her and the Ringmaster whips her again, she trumpets in pain, grabs him with her trunk, and throws him in her drinking tub. She is then locked up in solitary confinement.
After Dumbo becomes a clown in the circus, his friend, Timothy Mouse brings him to visit Mrs. Jumbo. Though her chains prevent her from moving much, she is able to use her trunk to caress and swing her son with her trunk. However, the visit is all too short, and Mrs. Jumbo waves good-bye.
At the end of the film, Dumbo has become famous for his ability to fly. As a result, Mrs. Jumbo is released and she and Dumbo are given a private train car. She is last seen caressing and hugging her son and waving goodbye to Dumbo's new friends, Jim Crow and his brothers, who had earlier helped Dumbo learn how to fly.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Mrs. Jumbo can be easily spotted leaving toward Toontown in the final scene of the 1988 hybrid film.
Gallery
Trivia
- Her only speaking line in the film is when she names her son Jumbo Jr. Other than that, she remains completely silent.
- The line was recorded by the late Verna Felton, who also voiced the Elephant Matriarch.
- The animation of Mrs. Jumbo caressing her son, Dumbo during the "Baby Mine" song was recycled for use in Goliath II for the scene with Goliath II's mother caressing her son, Goliath II.
- It is unknown as to what happened to her husband, Mr. Jumbo.
- Joe Grant and Dick Huemer changed Dumbo's mother's name from "Mother Ella" to "Mrs. Jumbo" as a reference to the famed Barnum & Bailey circus pachyderm.
- Dumbo's mother's eyes are blue but when she goes "rogue" after the kids abuse Dumbo, her eyes are blood-red. In real-life, all elephants' eyes are brown, even when enraged.
